Our take on: Caught on camera & Lovers' leap

October 8, 2010

Arresting video

Orlando Police this week arrested two suspects in connection with a transient's murder in the Parramore area last weekend. They enjoyed help from the city's eyes in the sky — Orlando's sophisticated surveillance web.

Cameras posted at West Church Street and Terry Avenue captured the movements of a green Nissan Frontier that witnesses put at the scene where Michael Hutto was shot. Footage led police to Stephen Koon and Brandon James, both charged in the murder.

Likewise, in August, the cameras aided the arrest of three men who allegedly beat and robbed a man in a downtown parking lot.

Orlando's cameras are becoming an invaluable tool for deterring and solving crime. No longer must bad guys just contend with the long arm of the law. Now, there's also the all-seeing eye.

Lovers' leap

Public-health experts long have warned that, despite sex-education courses, raging hormones and the thrill of imminent sexual trysts lead to dulled decision-making. And that leads juveniles to engage in unprotected sex.

Only a new survey in The Journal of Sexual Medicine found that experts nursed the right concerns — but for the wrong age group. Apparently, it is midlife lovers that more frequently trade caution for canoodling, and indulge in condom-less sex.

The study of 5,865 Americans ages 14 to 94 found that nearly 80 percent of adolescent males regularly used condoms. Not so much for 40- to 49-year-olds (20.5 percent). Men over 50 were the most egregious condom-shunners.

The study correctly notes that promoting condom use among the sexually active "should remain a public-health priority."